


The Sharpshooter

by cersedshadow



Series: 12 days of Lance [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: #Lancemas2019, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Blue loves her boy!, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Sniper Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cersedshadow/pseuds/cersedshadow
Summary: Day 5: The SharpshooterLance breathed in slowly, held, exhaled. Felt the slow beat of his heart. Blocked everything out; the fear, the madness, the confusion. Held perfectly still.One beat.Two.'I'm like the cool, ninja, sharpshooter!' It had been said long ago, half in jest. It was about time everyone took those words just a little more seriously.
Relationships: Lance & Blue Lion (Voltron), Lance & Voltron Paladins
Series: 12 days of Lance [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612639
Comments: 7
Kudos: 550





	The Sharpshooter

**Author's Note:**

> So still getting to grips with Ao3 posting formatting. Thank you everyone for the kudos and the comments. Why don't you go ahead and leave some more *hint, hint*. Have I made Lance the best shot in the universe. Yes, yes I have. Enjoy.

It was chaos.

No other word for it. They’d been taken by surprise. Entirely unprepared for the fight they were getting into. Lance cried out as something smacked into Blues side. It was so chaotic he couldn’t even see where the shots were coming from. He had been long separated from the others. Their opponent smart enough to keep them apart, less they face the full brunt of Voltron’s might.

Spinning, he let out a stream of ice, freezing everything around him and gaining some distance. It worked but all it revealed was the helplessness of the situation. There were just too many enemies. Robeasts of a kind Lance had never encountered before were flying about all over the place. Only about the size of an average fighter, they should have been easy enemies for the lions, but there was simply to many of them. For everyone one he shot down five took its place.

They swarmed like flies. Throwing themselves in packs at the lions, not caring for the fallen, not even attempting to evade destruction. Suckers and claws would cling to Blues hull. Something about them was messing with Blue. Her screens fuzzing to static, preventing navigations and blocking the com units. Lance was certain they were also interfering with Paladin bond somehow, preventing him from sensing the others. Blue was in a completely muddle because of it.

With the few seconds the ice blast gave him Lance desperately took in the dire situation. It wasn’t looking goof. Upon the ground Lance could see more robeasts rising. Huge, disjointed monstrosities. Lumbering to life and digging themselves out of the ground. They were slow moving, half formed and mad but as big as Voltron. They would be helpless if those giants got airborne. Quiznack!

Lance spiralled Blue into the air, lasers flying. Trying to break the encirclement and get back to the others. The bat like robeasts swarmed after him like a plague of locus. Running from one group just lead him head first into another.

‘Hunk! Shiro! Does anyone read me? I’m pinned down out here? Has anyone got eyes on the castle? We need to get out of here! Allura?! Coran!? Anyone!!!’ The com unit crackled, nothing but static. One of the creatures crawled across Blues eye shield, suckers on its chest firmly adhering itself and blocking his vision. Lance could feel Blues distress and revulsion. Frantically he shook her head, firing her lasers every which, falling into a corkscrew. The things stuck fast. He was flying blind.

Running out of options Lance summoned the sonic cannon. The sudden appearance throwing off a number of the attacking swarm. No time to think he fired a concussive blast, sending Blue into a loop to blast his own face. The vibrations had his teeth aching and bones shaking. His mad plan worked; confusing the swarm. Sending them screaming and spiralling to the ground, freeing Lances vision. Firing again and again he gained some space, clearing his own little area for a few precious seconds.

Lance looked to the skies. Judging by the dark cloud of robeasts on the horizon and the occasional flashes of light the other Lions weren’t doing any better. The ground robeasts were gearing up. Lance could see the glow of thrusters within their chests, the warming of ion cannons in their mouths, on their heads, pincers, claws, tails, whatever armaments they had primed to fight. Worse of all Lance saw the castle, light up in the lilac of a huge tractor beam. Fired from the core of the very base they had come to wipe out. The one they had thought was nothing but a small outpost. Not the stronghold of Zarkon’s right hand witch, Hagger.

‘Quiznack! Allura, get the castle out of here! You need to open a wormhole! Something!’ Again he got nothing but static and Lance cursed. Screaming he fired the sonic cannon once more, diving through the path it cleared, freezing what robeasts he could. Mind racing for a plan. 

Desperately, cut off for the others, he flew Blue straight towards the base. His only thought that he needed to stop the castle from being captured. If the castle was free then Allura could open up a wormhole to get them out of here. Better to live and fight another day.

Charging through the beasts Lance threw caution and safety to the wind. His and Blues minds in perfect sync as they flew recklessly towards the base and its glowing tractor beam. Lance closed his eyes, falling into the bond with his lion. Feeling how the ro-bats were scratching her hull, digging at her joints, stealing her quintessence. Like vampire bats, sucking it out one drop at a time. The feeling was agonising but they flew on, blind, nothing left to trust but their own instincts. Through Blue Lance could feel the wind slicing around them, could sense the approaching collision. They were closing in on the ground at a frightening speed.

Lance breathed in slowly, held, exhaled. Felt the slow beat of his heart. Blocked everything out; the fear, the madness, the confusion. Held perfectly still.

One beat.

Two.

Lances eyes flew open. He fired. One blast, the most powerful ice blast Blue had released yet.

Then he yanked back on the controls, pulling as hard as he could. Gritting his teeth his arms trembled with the effort. Blue was sent from a straight dive into a sudden spin, pulling up just a few miles from the ground. The force of the sudden directional change and the heat from their decent through the atmosphere was enough to shake the ro-bats from their hide. Giving Blue some relief and Lance a flicker of hope. It cleared the view of the castle far above. No longer lit up in purple. Free from the tractor beam. Behind him the base sat, equipment frozen solid under meters of ice.

Lance whooped, elation and hope surging through him. They could do this!

Something heavy hit him from the side. Lance felt the impact, both in his own body and through Blue. Who was screaming in pain. A long, anguished wail that shattered Lance’s heart even as it ripped his head apart. Lance screamed in return. It felt like his very soul was being shaken from him. Nails dragging into his chest, trying to rip open his chest. Lance had never felt anything like it. The energy surging through both him and Blue in waves upon waves of stabbing pain. They couldn’t hold on.

Another sudden lurching and Lance was being sucked out of the Blue lion. Thrown like confetti into the air, spilling from her gaping mouth. Having been spat out. A moment later and Blue was gone. Completely offline. Lost. Even the faintest of her presence vanished from his mind. The pain stopped but the loss left Lance breathless. Anguished. Heartbroken.

The he was falling. Tumbling through the sky. Picking up speed. The ro-bats screeched and swirled around him. The turbulence from their flight slamming into him as shock-waves. He was tossed with no end through the horde. Avoiding being cut in half by a carelessly thrown wing and claw by millimetres. Lance fell and kept falling, leaving the swarm behind. Battered but conscious. Alive by only the thinnest of margins.

Still screaming Lance scrambled to think. Desperately he tried to fire his jet pack, his only hope to slow his decent. Nothing. Not even a splutter. The whooshing of the air was deafening, Lances cries for the team were ripped from him in the thin trembling air before they could even reach his com. He didn’t think the team would have heard him anyway. Even the crackle of the static that had plagued him before was silent. Whatever had taken Blue out of action had also trashed his suit. He was going to die.

Perhaps through instinct, or just blind flailing, Lance managed to position himself as a parachuter would. Arms and legs spread eagle, belly facing towards the ground. Still miles away but with every strained blink getting perilously closer. Lance could do nothing but watch his death approaching, eyes strained wide. His mind was curiously blank as he took in everything stretched out below. The approaching base, the shimmer of the ice in the distant cool sun, the smudge of the rocky ground. The immense shadows stretching across the landscape from the ro-bat swarms and the titan robeasts. The shadows of the ro-bat swarms looked like clouds, swirling and changing, random mesmerising patterns. No doubt each following a desperately flailing lion.

It was strange. Death. This was by no means the first time Lance had faced it. Even within the first few days of Voltron he had almost died several times. Rarely though did Lance get the time to contemplate his own demise in the moment. War was fast passed and chaotic. This falling seemed to go on and on. Lances brain working double time. Eyes wide, taking in everything of the world before the inevitable end. He would have preferred Earth to be the last sight he saw but the rainbows given off by Blues ice weren’t so bad. With the castle free the others might have a chance of getting out of this. 

Something caught Lance’s attention. A speck moving about the rapidly approaching base. He didn’t know what drew his attention. His subconscious guiding him. Instead of imaging his family, moment before his death muscle memory had him reaching for his bayard. Just moving his hand through the press of the rushing wind was hard. The weapon slipped into his palm and transformed with a flash into his sniper. Lance thank Altea his bayard wasn’t also offline. However, that slight movement sent his body tumbling, pin wheeling through the air. Balance lost. Trying to right himself Lance brought the scope to his eye, straining to hold it stead against the pull of the wind.

A figure appeared in his cross hairs. Standing on the top deck of the base, looking out at the continued dogfights. Lightening crackled from their palms and hit the iced over tractor beam. Breaking the encasing apart through sheer force. The hunched over stance, the lightening, the robeasts. Haggar.

Lances breath caught. Fear freezing him limbs. Hairs standing on end and sending goosebumps across his skin. They had been tracking Hagger across the universe for months now. Ever since the empire began to fracture. She was the biggest and greatest enemy of the coalition. Her experiments and ability to manipulate quintessence posing a threat to the entire universe. Thousands upon millions of lives, Galra included, were taken by her hand. Wiped out on her whims. Whole planets having their life force sucked dry to create weapons capable to wiping out galaxies. Practically every atrocity of the Galra empire could be linked back to the immortal head druid. Ten thousand years of death and torture on her hands.

Lance watched her through the scope. Barely daring to breath. Everything fading away. Thoughts of his own death distant in his narrow eyed focus. The figure itself was little more than a dot. A dark speck against the brushed silver of the base.

Lance was miles away. His velocity pulling the moisture from his eyes and breath from his lungs. Ro-beast and other Galra flitted around in his vision. Dipping in and out of his scope. Scattering his focus and blocking his cross hairs. The speed in which he was falling had him shaking. HIs hands straining to keep his bayard steady, his neck aching from holding still. Unbalanced and trembling as he fell to his death.

Lances focus didn’t waver. His mind clear and certain. His heart steady. He listened for the beats, narrowed his focus down the lens. Saw nothing but his target and the positioning of his cross-hairs. _Felt_ the distance between him and his target. The gaping void of the miles his blast would have to traverse. The impregnable distance. Knew, with certainty, the power he would need to cross it. The tingling rush of life through his chest and the static fuzz within his hands as his bayard glowed and transformed.

The barrel longer, the scope greater, the weight larger. The pummel stretched right over Lances shoulder and he could feel the heat of the charge as he prepared to fire. The power gathering for one single blast. The tip glowed a bright burning blue. Lance breathed. In. Out.

One heart beat.

Two.

He took the impossible shot.

The kickback sent him reeling. It ripped right through his arm and shoulder. Wrenching them in a white hot flare of pain. Lance cried out, his balance thrown off. The world now spinning around him. In surprise he released his bayard. It returned back to its resting mode in a flash of blue and smacked against his helmet as Lance tumble past. The pain in his arm made it hard to focus, the spinning of the world making him nauseous. Not giving him the room to think or move to right himself.

The ground grew closer. Specks turning into pebbles, turning into rocks, turning into boulders as he drew close. This was it. The end.

A roar ripped through the air. So loud and pervasive Lance felt the vibration of it in his soul. It echoed onwards, building and building in strength. A warmth flew through him. Lance closed his eyes.

The Blue Lion caught him meters from the ground. Slamming into it herself in return. Head snapping back and side scrapping along the ground as she dug her claws in. She had come to in the grasp of a titan robeast. Had thrown herself forward to catch her paladin, knowing she could take the impact. Caring nothing for her own safety.

It was only the inbuilt G-force dampeners within the lions that stopped Lance becoming a bloody pancake of smeared flesh on the inside of the Blues mouth. However, they couldn’t stop the force of the impact entirely. Lance fell on his bad shoulder, whiting out his vision from the pain. With the second impact he was thrown across the hull of Blues mouth. Smacking his head hard enough to crack his helmet. Hard enough to have Lances vision go black. Later he would be thankful for the reprieve.

Blue continued to slide on the rocky terrain. Sides scrapped and dented. Worried about their Paladin. When they gained enough traction they fired up their thrusters, taking to the air. Determined to get as far away from the ground as possible and return to the pride. Sure they would be able to help her poor Paladin. She could feel the echo of his pain as if it was her own and pushed as hard as she could.

Flying up she spun and twirled, dodging the swathes of falling ro-bats plummeting from the heavens. The further she climbed the more she could feel her brothers and sisters of Voltron. Their bond restoring. Blue delighted in their return. Feeling their fierce joy in return but urging them to keep moving. To get their Paladins back to the castle, now stationed in the upper atmosphere. She levelled out, trying to spare her Paladin any more harm.

Lance blinked awake to pain. His head hurt. His shoulder was its own small sun of agony and much else of his body ached with deep bruising. The cool metal of Blues hull felt amazing on his cheek as he coughed and fought to keep down his nausea. The world slipping in and out of darkness. The constant worried thrum of Blues purrs the only thing keeping him awake. Lance started coughing. The air racking through his lungs. His eyes stung from dryness and his tongue felt swollen in his mouth.

Continuing to cough Lance listened to the crackle in his ears. The coms coming back to life slowly. Voices starting to break through. Distantly he realised he was in shock.

‘What!? What’s happening?’ came Hunk, surprise colouring his voice.

‘Everyone report! Is anyone hurt?’ shouted Shiro.

‘Present! Reds low on power but alright’ was Keith’s immediate reply. For every voice that filtered through the com Lance felt a spark of relief. He didn’t know what was happening. What miracle had occurred to get Blue up and running quick enough to save him. It didn’t matter. As long as his team, his family, were alright Lance wasn’t going to question it.

‘Pidge here! I got grounded down by the mountains. Greens okay though.’

‘Yellows good. Bruised and beaten but good. What the hell though? Why are all the ro-beast falling?’

‘It looks like they’ve gone offline or something’ responded Pidge as she fired up Green into the air.

‘Castle here!’ chimmed in Coran to everyone’s relief. ‘We’re okay. The princess is a bit low on energy from trying to fight the tractor beam but other than that no harm done. I’m looking at the ro-beast bio signatures. Their winking right out of existence one by one. It’s the darndest thing.’

‘Wait? Has anyone got eyes on Lance?’ Shiro shouted, alert. Lance coughed, trying to get enough air into his lungs to respond. He rasped out something weakly, cheek pressed to the metal, hoping they might hear him. It wasn’t to be. Weather he was simply too quiet or his com had been damaged in the impact he didn’t know.

‘Lance! Come in Lance! Answer me!’

‘Lance!’ cried Hunk, now alarmed. Keith started cursing. ‘I can’t see him!’

‘Hang on Reds trying to tell me something. I think he knows where Blue is. This way!’ The Red Lion shot off, noticeably slower than normal. Diving towards the decreasing mass of ro-bats below them. Shiro snarled and dived after him, using Blacks huge frame to simply rip the offending things apart.

‘There! Over there! She’s flying this way. Below the swarm’ cried Keith, having spotted Blue first. ‘Shiro, she doesn’t look good.’

‘Lance! Answer me Lance! Do you read me Lance? Damn it! Everyone to the castle. We can figure out what happened later. Right now we need to regroup.’

‘What if Lances not in Blue? What if he’s on the ground?’ said Keith, sounding frantic. Lance wanted to tell the hot head not to worry. That his Lion wasn’t the only one who would jump to the rescue when needed, but it was all becoming to much. He could feel his vision and consciousness fading. Blues worried purring increased in volume but it did no good. Lance faded.

He wakes up. Cold to the bone and with an ache in his limbs but a much clearer head. He tumbles on jelly legs out of the healing pod and surrenders himself gratefully into Hunks welcoming embrace. More than content to hang like a limp noodle and steal some warmth until his brain came back online. Lance is led unresisting to a couch and sat down with a sigh. He can see the rest of the team hovering. No doubt worried and curious, eager to know what happened.. Lance just hope their questions were easy ones, his head felt like it had been through a grinder and he was coming up worryingly blank in places. Like how he got back to the castle for one thing. Wasn’t he falling?

‘Lance?’ called Shiro, gently getting his attention. Lance raised his head to catch the warm grey eyes of his leader and offered him a wane smile. Shiro, kneeling next to him on the floor smiled back, eyes tight.

‘What’s up boss man? Did we win the fight? Is everyone okay?’

‘Everyone fine. You were the only one seriously injured.’

‘Oh?’ Lance took a look around. Seeing everyone but Coran and Allura. ‘Coran? Allura?’ he slurred, mouth still kind of numb. Feeling was quickly returning to his limbs. Causing a prickle of discomfort as it did so. Hunk was still half hugging him, not willing to let him go quite yet. Lance wasn’t complaining.

‘They’re fine. Allura wore herself out and Coran’s making sure she’s getting some rest.’ Shiro shuffled forward, resting a hand on Lances shoulder and squeezing tights. ‘Lance, can you tell us what happened to you? We all got separated in the fight and didn’t see anything. What do you remember?’

Lance racked his brain, putting his head in his hand when it started to ache. ‘Err, I remember the ro-bat things. They were messing everything up. I couldn’t here you guys through the com and they kept blocking my vision. I managed to use the sonic cannon to knock them down for a bit and saw the castle. It was caught in a tractor beam. I couldn’t get through to your guys so I dived for the thing myself. I think I shot it? I don’t know?’

‘You did, no doubt there. I got grounded around that time and saw it too. You covered the whole thing in ice. Cut it pretty close’ chimed in Pidge, muscling her way closer to stand by Lance. He smiled at her with trembling lips. Trying to reassure her and assure the worry in those wide hazel eyes. It didn’t help.

‘Really? Cool. After that…after that…’ Lance shook his head. Trying to shake the memories into place. There was a sort of panic building in his chest. A second hand fear resurfacing after the time. His throat felt suddenly tight. Shiro pushed himself forward. Taking Lance firmly by the shoulders, grounding him.

‘Lance. Breath. That’s right. Just like that. Breath with me. Everything alright. Your fine. We’re fine. We got out. The fights over. We just want to understand what happened.’ Shiros voice was strong a firm, soothing. , Lance brought his hands to grip the ones holding him, grounding himself in the present.

‘Right, yeah. Sorry. Where was I?’

‘You just took out the tractor beam and stopped the castle from crashing into the ground’ huffed out Keith. Talking for the first time. Lace could see him in his peripheral. Arms crossed, feet shuffling. Hair cast over his eyes. Years ago he would have thought the Red Paladin didn’t care. That his gruff question was a show of impatience. Now he knew better and took it for the fear it was. The concern poorly camouflaged. The crossed arms as a way of self comfort, not disinterest.

‘I shot the beam. Then I pulled up with Blue. I was trying to see if it had worked. I was happy that it did and then…and then I don’t know. I was hit with something. I don’t even know what. It hurt Blue. It hurt me. _So much_. I couldn’t think or see or make it stop. Blue…Blue threw me from the cockpit. I think she was trying to help. She went downright after. Completely gone. One minute there and the next…nothing.’

Lance breathed deeply, gripping the front of his pod suit. The remembered reaching of his heart as the bond went dark. The loss staggering through him. Frantically he searched for the bond now and found it thrumming. Alive and vibrant with Blues worry and happiness. Glad he was alright. Ready to pounce and smother him with love. His chest burned as she rushed to fill it and Lance felt tears gather in his eyes. She was alright. On the mend like him, but alright. She had never left. Frantically he sent her back all the love he could. His own happiness, his gratitude for saving him, everything. The memory of loss faded.

Keith sucked in a breath and so did Hunk. They all knew how important the Lions bond was to them. How deep it went. The thought of losing it sent a sympathetic twinge of pain through them all. Hunk hugged Lance tight and Keith stomped over. Looking like he wanted to offer his own comfort but never to comfortable with public contact. Even after all these years.

Lance calmed himself and cleared his throat. The effects of the pod were almost all gone now. Replaced only by a gnawing hunger. He felt much clearer and with his new clarity the memory of everything that transpired was rushing back.

‘I was falling. From really high. The ro-bat things were swarming all around but they ignored me. I’m not sure they could even see me. I don’t know what happened to Blue but whatever hit us knocked out my suit. My jetpack and com were down. I…well I don’t know what I was thinking, but I looked at the base and I saw her. Just standing there. So I- I got my bayard out and…you know’ Lance mimicked holding up his sniper and firing, ‘I took the shot. I think I hurt myself or something and then Blue came and caught me. It’s all blurry after that. What happened? How did you guys get out? What about the robeasts?’

‘Who Lance? Who did you see?’ asked Shiro sharply. Looking worried and impatient.

Lance blinked at him wide eyes, slow disbelief clouding his mind. ‘Hagger’ he breathed. Watching the shock sweep over the others faces. ‘She was just…standing there. Chucking out lightening. Trying to get the tractor beam free. So I…’

‘You shot her’ said Keith, disbelieving. All of them were looking at Lance wide eyed. Lance looked back just the same, shaking his head.

‘No, no. You don’t understand. I couldn’t have! She was miles away! I could barely even see her through the scope! And there were all the robeasts flapping about all over the place. There’s no way… there’s no way I could have hit her. Not at that distance.’

Lance waited for someone to tell him he was crazy. There was just no way he made that shot. It was madness. No one did though. Just stared back at him. Slack jawed awe colouring their faces. ‘I couldn’t have shot her’ he repeated, trying to convince himself. ‘My snipers not even powerful enough to shoot from that distance!’

‘It’s the only thing that make sense.’ Pidge pushed up their glasses, the little crinkle forming between their brow. The one that mean they were working through a problem. ‘Hagger created the robeasts. Maybe killing her also knocked them out? It would explain why they suddenly all died at least.’

‘So…what? She was acting as a kind of radio transmitter? And without it they all just turned off?’ said Hunk, looking just as gobsmacked. ‘Did you see the size of those ones on the ground?! Would they really all just fall cause she did?’

‘I don’t know hunk. I could tell you more if Greens monitoring equipment had been working but it was messed up like everything else.’ Pidge looked imploringly at Shiro. Lance did the same. Still not believing any of this to be true. There was just no way. Absolutely no way that his one lucky shot, taken from miles away while free falling to his death, could be the cause of their miraculous escape.

‘Maybe the castle recorded it’ broke in Keith. Talking slowly like the idea was only just occurring to him. ‘Its equipment more powerful than the Lions and since the robeasts left it alone while it was in the tractor beam its equipment might not have been compromised. ’

Pidge raised her eyebrows at the Red Paladin, turning around and bringing up a consol. Small skinny hands flying over the keyboard as they pulled up the latest battle record. It didn’t take them long to find the appropriate file and pull up the video feed from the castle. Focusing in on where the base and Hagger would have been. Everyone watched, breathe caught in anticipation, as they zoomed in as far as they could and hit play.

It was just as Lance remembered it. Utter chaos. The robats were flying about all over the place. The tractor beam glowing a bright lilac and taking up most of the screen. Pidge fast forwarded the video, stopping when they saw the Blue Lion come into view. Lance watched, strangely detached, as Blue charged through the robeasts. The purple monstrosities clinging to her back like parasites. Hunk gripped his hand tight as Blue drew closer and closer to the ground. Looking like they were going to fly straight into it before a brilliant burst of white erupted from their mouth. Immediately the pink hew of the tractor beam faded. Spires of ice exploding outwards to lock it down. Blue spiralled away in the nick of time. Rising into the air.

Lance knew he had been the one flying. That was his work and his Lion. Distantly he felt proud, but mostly he just watched in strange detachment. Like the whole thing had happened to someone else. He really hadn’t realised just how close he’d left it. Blue skirting the ground jut in time to avoid a head on collision. It would have been beautiful, if daring, flying were it not for the clingy robats falling like ticks all around. Shiro made an impressed humming noise under his breath. Pidge zoomed out a bit to keep Blue in her sights.

Lance watched, saw the flick of purple from one of the titanic robeasts maws and shook as the quintessence lightening connected with Blues fleeing form. That must have been what caused the initial hit and the pain. It arced around blue. Lance remembered going on for an age but on the video it lasted not a second before Blue went limp. The robeast then moved forward with surprising speed to encase her in its claws. Pressing down as if to crush her. Lance watched in sympathetic pain. Blues limp form was harrowing. She looked dead.

Pidge frantically zoomed in on the footage, trying to pick out Lance but it was no good. His form simply to small, the chaos around him simply to confusing. With the speed he would have been falling, the robeasts all around picking out Lances limp form would be impossible.

‘Get back to the base. Focus on Hagger’ Pidge nodded and shifted her focus. Eventually she got the right angle and zoomed in all the way. Even with the castles cameras the figures rushing around the base were still little more than dark smudges.

Hunk squinted at the screen and leaned forward. ‘There. I think that’s her. See, throwing around that lighting stuff like Lance said. If you watch closely you can see the purple flash.’ Everyone followed his pointed finger, focusing on the edge of the bases, overhang looking out towards the distant tractor beam, and the figure standing there.

Keith did a little rummaging on his own consol and narrowed his eyes. ‘You must have been over three miles away.’

Pidge shook her head and brought up her own math, ‘your forgetting to factor the height. Lance was falling from Blue. So the actual distance would be greater. It depends on how close to the ground he was when he took the shot’ Lance chose not to tell her it was pretty darn close. If only cause he himself didn’t want to remember. ‘But it could be something between 5 to, like, 50 depending.’

‘See, there’s no way I could make that distance. My bayard doesn’t have the power.’

‘Just play the video Pidge. We’ll know if she gets shot’ said Shiro, bring a stop to the discussion. Lance looked on with wide searching eyes. Determined not to miss a thing.

The video played for a few breathless moments. Everyone keeping an eye on the figure they thought was Hagger. They didn’t move much. Just sent out the occasional flash of purple. Others around them were scurrying around like mad. It was hard to keep track of everything with the robeasts swarming and constantly blocking the view of the feed but they did so. Which meant they saw the flash of blue and watched as the figure slowly crumpled to the ground.

‘Pause! Play it back. Slowly’ commanded Shiro, leaning forward to take a closer look. Pidge was moving before he even asked. This time they played the video at slow speed. All the paladins watched, breathless, as the blue glow approached from a corner of the screen. Even with the slowed speed of the video it approached ferociously quickly. Parting through the robeasts and closing in on the dark figure with unerring accuracy. It hit, for sure. Not a moment a later the figure crumbled. The other figures of the Galra rushed forward to the fallen shadow. Then there was a strange happening, a kind of wavering in the air and they all made to retreat. Falling as they did so and not getting back up. 

‘The castle readings show a surge of quintessence at this moment. But it fades out after several minutes. Looking at the bio signatures it seems everyone was wiped out with it. The robeasts also fell at this time’ Pidge recited mechanically. Eyes flashing across the numbers, numb with disbelief.

Lance couldn’t believe it either. That was him. He did that. He _shot_ Hagger. Killed her. The women had had no idea. Completely taken by surprise. No time to comprehend. No time to dodge or teleport. They weren’t even looking in the right direction! Just one second fin, the next second a hole in their chest. Lance didn’t know how he did it, the entire thing nothing more than a blur but he would recognise the look of his bayards laser anywhere.

‘Just…just how? How did you even make that shot’ Hunk shouted, scrambling to grab the controls. ‘You must have been falling at max velocity by that point. Hang on, I think I can trace the blast through the quintessence readings. Give me a sec’ his large fingers flew over the dials, bring up more and more of the castles scans and video footage. Lance just kept gaping. ‘Twelvish kilometres I guess. You managed to shot her from over ten kilometres away!’

Everyone was once again staring. Lance just looked at his hands, mind blank.

‘Holy shit Sharpshooter. You _did it_.’


End file.
